‘The Boy and the Heron’ becomes 4th highest-grossing anime movie in US

Newest achievement: “The Boy and the Heron” recorded $39.6 million at the box office, over a million dollars higher than “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero,” which made $38 million since its release on Aug. 19, 2022.

With the recent box office earnings, Studio Ghibli’s latest movie now sits at fourth place in the highest-grossing anime movie list in the U.S., next to No. 3 “Pokémon the Movie 2000” (2000, $43.7 million), followed by “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train” in second place (2021, $49.5 million) and “Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back” (1999, $85.7 million) in first place.

Strong opening: “The Boy and the Heron,” the 24th film released by Studio Ghibli, saw a record-breaking opening weekend of $12.8 million during its release on Dec. 8, 2023. The latest movie, which was Hayao Miyazaki’s biggest opening in North America, was reportedly the first original anime film to top the domestic box office.

Golden Globes win: The film was named best animated feature at the 81st Golden Globes ceremony on Sunday, marking the first Golden Globes win for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

About the movie: Set in World War II, “The Boy and the Heron,” originally titled “How Do You Live?”, follows a young boy named Mahito, who loses his mother in a fire in Tokyo. He moves to live with his stepmother in the countryside, where he meets a talking heron that eventually takes him to a magical realm.

Distributed by GKIDS in North America, the film’s English dub features many big names in Hollywood, including Florence Pugh, Robert Pattinson, Mark Hamill, Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Dave Bautista, Karen Fukuhara and Gemma Chan.